ive never felt so guilty
by qweety
Summary: They say that once you get in Hope's Peak, you can't get out. (syoc, closed.)
1. come one come all

**students are in! here's the list of them,**

**in no particular order (**_format: name, shsl, owner_**):**

Haru Tanaka, Art Supplies Maker: theroseshadow21

Nicholas Gannon, Translator: therussianderpkitten

Aito Saitou, Archer: shsl slacker

Maeda Takumi, Runner: mastermind monokuma

Kaoru Yuki, Cosplayer: paloozachu

Teiko Matsui, Massage Therapist: sushii-sushii

Chinatsu Nagai, Historian: thefortuneteller

Daisuke Kagegami, Sharpshooter Hunter: shiroikage

Kerry McKenna, Imagination (?): themasin

Yume Himari, Tennis Star: paloozachu

Xyranis Delamorn, Hero: miss usami

Ayama Mitsuki, Interior Designer: jelly rice doughnuts

Izumi Akamine, Mathematician: fandomhospitalizedpatient

Masuyo Kaneko, Sweet Lolita: thirddespairsister

Naru Sagayama, Marksman: shadowplayer360

Seka Tsuruya, Survivor: xxxdarkxxx

Sakura Tsukishiro, Botanist: shiroikage

letsa go


	2. greetings fellow comrades

_hey this is the first chapter of ive never felt so guilty! its just the prologue and introductions r/n and the lovely monokuma trots along the scene being all sassy and despairing towards the end. his character is extremely fun to write omg._

* * *

Takumi looks up at the humongous school, yellow eyes being straining from looking at the sun's deadly rays. He could feel his face heating up as he reads the letter, over and over again.

"_Dear Maeda Takumi_," the words repeat in his head, persisting to never be forgotten.

"_I would like to invite you to be a part of the academy where all high schoolers that excel at their skill meet, Hope's Peak Private Academy_." Takumi let out a breath that was way harsher than he'd expected. He'd read earlier at the online forum thread about Hope's Peak and the upcoming semester that there would be a few students that were well known.

For example, the Super High School Level Historian. This student's knowledge about history ranges from Kisa Gotami to Julius Cesar. Word is that they had an interest for theatre, and still do.

This other boy, the Super High School Level Hero, he was a prince at his home country, saving 'princesses' from castles and managing to get away from the evil king. It seems a bit like a video game cliché, but rumors about him were that the first princess he saved was just being grounded by her father.

There are others, such as the SHSL Survivor, SHSL Sharpshooter Hunter, SHSL Cosplayer, the list could go on and on. But something that confused the boy was that there were a total of seventeen students total, but sixteen names shown. Was it a listing error? Takumi shrugs. Questions must be saved for later. His shoes tapped against the sidewalk pavement when he walks towards the school, mentally preparing himself for what's ahead of him.

The runner receives pains throughout his head, vision blurry, teeth clenching and his body stiffens and it feels like someone's performing autopsy on him, moving organs around and poking at his head with the roughest of hands. He could hear a faint laughter, coming from the back of his head, and he feels numb, all joints going  
through paralysis.

This all ends when he finally blacks out, waking up on the floor as stiff as a log. He got up and he weaves his fingers through his navy blue hair and noticing that the room he's in isn't the corridor he entered a while ago. The boy examines the room. You wouldn't have to be a detective to notice that the windows had iron plates that were bolted in quite tightly, and that there were security cameras, checking your every step and every contact you make with objects. There was no lie, however, that you needed to do a bit of observing to find the note that was deliberately (Or was it? Maeda couldn't tell, poor boy.) placed on the floor. It was hastily written with a pastel blue color, writing almost ineligible to read.

"_Welcome, student! It is a new semester, and that means a revolutionary new world that lurks between these halls. Please come to the entrance way to meet your new classmates, and be sure to bring your dignity, bastard_!"

Is this some sort of joke? What do they mean by a 'revolutionary new world'? Takumi furrows his brows and adjusts the collar of his white button up shirt that's buttoned all the way up to the neck. He does follow the instruction to go to the entrance way of the school, fifteen pairs of eyes staring back at him.

All of the students were standing in front of a bulkhead door, security camera and machine gun hanging onto the side. "Hey, who's this kid? He better be the last student. It's so goddamn annoying with so many people in here," a brunette girl speaks out, brushing the bangs out of her face. She stood five feet, five inches tall, black choker and yellow eyes looking as deadly as ever. The girl had freckles all over her cheeks and nose, which were very visible from her almost colorless skin.

"That wasn't cute of you, Kerry-chan." Another pale girl spoke up, skin clear of any imperfections, like a porcelain doll. Her long sleeved Lolita dress, pastel pink with a blue jacket that adorned bell sleeves, was very lacy and has many ruffles on it. She twirled a light brown hair curl with her finger and looked at the runner with baby blue eyes, baby pink lips curling into a sweet and delicate tight lipped smile. Takumi, flustered and confused, half smiled twiddled his thumbs to give him something to do.

"Really? Well, guess what; I lost the ability to care!" Kerry's ears and cheeks were becoming red with frustration, and she walks off into a corner, rubbing her temples to calm herself down.

"Maybe we should introduce ourselves first… we don't want to give this guy trouble." A lanky boy, around Takumi's height, stands up and sticks his hands in his pockets. His face was lightly tanned with a few spots of acne, but in contrast to that he had calm, green eyes. They reminded the runner of the grass he laid on top of after a lengthy, heart pumping jogging session.

"Uh, well…! My name is Xyranis Delamorn, Super High School Level Hero. It's nice to meet you," Xyranis holds out a hand for Maeda to shake, which he does. His grip is firm, but voice is quiet.

The cutesy student from earlier steps up, tilting her head slightly to get a better look at him. She lifted a hand to touch the collar of his shirt, rubbing the cloth between her thumb and index finger. "Cute shirt." The girl runs a tongue over her pale pink lipstick and straightens her posture to introduce herself.

"I'm Masuyo Kaneko, Super High School Level Sweet Lolita. It's a pleasure." She does a small curtsey and her voice is high and on the verge of becoming babyish, but the runner nods in reply, taking mental note to keep this shirt extra clean.

Kerry walks over to Takumi next while she softly bites the inside of her mouth. She managed to calm herself down, gloved hands hid behind her back, voice with a rough edge to it. "Kerry McKenna. Super High School Level Imagination. I want to make this short and sweet; don't give us any more trouble than we already have," she warns, knotting her brows and standing on her tippy toes to get to Takumi's height of five foot eleven.

Her eyes narrow and she purses her lips, steam getting to her head. The runner nods nervously and he mutters a small "sorry."

A seemingly kind girl with strawberry blonde hair walks up to him. She has sun kissed skin, olive green eyes that are framed by a pair of blue glasses, and a baby blue dress with a pastel green belt on her waist. Her smile was perfect, teeth white and apples of her cheeks maintaining a rosy glow to them.

"Hi, I'm Sakura Tsukishiro, Super High School Level Botanist! You don't mind if I call you Dasher, right?" Takumi jumps at the sudden nickname and questions it, feeling a similar experience of goosebumps.

"Dunno." She shrugs, hands tugging at her denim jacket with a pink, metallic rose pin at the collar. "But see 'ya around."

Her Mary Jane shoes tap against the floor when she walks over to a boy with fair complexion and reddish brown hair that barely goes past his shoulders. Takumi could see Tsukishiro say something to the boy, and he crosses his arms and nods, black boots clicking against the tiles as he walks towards the runner.

"M' name is Daisuke Kagegami, Super High School Level Sharpshooter Hunter. Nice to meet you." Daisuke's hazel eyes briefly scan Takumi's body, and the yellow eyed boy nodded in response.

"_If this was the Sharpshooter Hunter I read about… that means this guy was the little kid that accidentally shot a man that was in a bear suit…_" Takumi swallows, and he needed a few moments of reconsideration that no, he probably isn't a bad guy on the inside… _probably_.

The next student had a tall figure and a slightly bulky build. Perhaps she stood 6'3", but nobody would really know with those hiking boots. She had chocolatey brown hair and hazel eyes, similar to Daisuke's. The girl has tanned colored skin, similar to the color of caramel. "Hey, I'm Seka Tsuruya, Super High School Level Survivor. Maybe you could be some sort of useful asset," she mutters, covering her mouth with her hand in a somewhat thinking pose.

"E-excuse me?" Even if this certainly is the survivor of all of a zombie apocalypse, nuclear apocalypse, and an airplane crash; Takumi is no survivor. He declares himself as simply a person, possibly an atom made up of other atoms. A singular pixel within the galaxy, full of stars and planets.

"Hm… there is a possibility." An abysmal, weary feeling came across Maeda as Seka said these words.

Continuing on through the group of students, this one has eyes full of determination but timidness at the same time. A sky blue color with a few specks of gold, she opens her mouth to introduce herself but instead a hoarse, "I-I… _shit_…" comes out and she looks down, cheeks flushing small, quick breaths escaping her lips. A few moments pass. The runner rubbed his neck awkwardly, and the brown haired girl gets her act together.

"My name is Izumi Akamine! I am a Super High School Level Mathematician," she grins, teeth white and cheeks returning to normal color.

"Sorry about earlier, it happens sometimes," she admits, chuckling and fiddling with the zipper on her silver colored jacket.

"It's fine, I get it," Takumi shrugs, trying to laugh along with her. Social anxiety is hard to cooperate with, especially when there are fifteen other people that are your age that you're probably expected to get along with.

A boy, around four inches shorter than Takumi, smiles and bows at the yellow eyed runner. Startled at the sudden politeness, he bows as well. "I'm Yume Himari, Super High School Level Tennis Star. It's an honor to meet another athlete!" He exclaims, voice a bit shaky and knees jittery from excitement.

"Ah, you too…" Takumi eyes Himari nervously, noticing that his brown wolf cut was messy and red sport shoes caked with a bit of mud.

"And I'm K-Kaoru Yuki." a student in full on Megurine Luka cosplay softly whispers, peeking out from behind Himari. Her wig was flawless, no stray hairs were shown and clothing wrinkle free. Her contacts, an ocean blue color, look at Takumi timidly, making him swallow from the silence the two teenagers share.

"Super High School Level Cosplayer." Yuki steps back, hands clasped together and face starting to become sour with the socialization.

A student steps up to face Takumi, eyes a clear grey and hair black and cut short with a fringe. It's quite messy. "My name is Chinatsu Nagai, Super High School Level Historian. Nice to meet you," they say, nodding.

They shoves their hands in their pants pockets, feeling the pair of glasses and snacks they put in there. "I would also prefer if you didn't use gender binary pronouns when talking about me. I might be biologically female, but this doesn't make me what you think you see," Nagai informs, shoulders hunching and fists balling up in their pockets.

"This applies to everyone as well." They look back at the other students. Some were talking to each other, such as Kagegami and Tsukishiro.

"_They look good together_…" Takumi deemed, turning around to face the historian once more.

"Alright, Nagai-san," Takumi acknowledges, and a student, brown hair with bangs reaching to the middle of his forehead, shakily slides past the bunch of students and to Takumi.

"Hi. I'm Nicholas Gannon, Super High School Level Translator." he mutters, staring at the tiles on the floor apprehensively. "It's great to… meet you."

"You too, Nicholas-san." Nicholas meekly smiles and picks at his sweatshirt a bit. It's as if there's loose threads all over, but there are none.

Coming up next was a male student that stood five feet, nine inches tall. He pulled off the all-black outfit well, with a jacket, pair of jeans, fingerless gloves, along with his sneakers. He even had black hair and eyes, the bangs sticking out a bit. However, his white shirt and metallic silver bracelet were the only articles of clothing that weren't black. "Naru Sagayama, Marksman. Please tell me that you're not going to be a pain in the neck." Naru crosses his arms and rolled his eyes, making it clear that he is in absolutely no mood to make small talk with Maeda.

He steps back, talking to another student, a girl, that was around four foot ten. She wore a Lolita dress, somewhat similar to Kaneko's, but with less glamour and the accents were white. She looks up at Takumi, blue eyes complimenting her gold and silver jewelry. Her crystal earrings dangled as she steps towards him, one foot in front of another.

"Oh, um… hey! I'm… ah… Ayama Mitsuki, Super High School Level Interior Designer." Mitsuki is a mess with her words, sputtering here and there. She smoothens out her dress from any wrinkles and dirt, as if there was any.

"Happy to make your acquaintance."

Last two students came, one very short, other a bit taller but shorter than Takumi himself.

'Both male,' Takumi noted, and stepped up to greet and hear their introduction.

"Name's Aito Saitou… not like I wanna introduce myself or anything. Super High School Level Archer's my title. So, what even are you, a Super High School Level Bore?" Aito points at the taller male's plain white shirt and makes a face. Takumi reddened and dug his heels deep into his shoes.

"I'm pretty sure he's a Super High School Level Runner, Saitou. You can tell by the clothes." The taller of the two students speaks, crossing his arms and revealing the watch he has on his left wrist. Takumi wonders if it matches up with the clock in the classroom he was in earlier.

"Hi. My name is Teiko Matsui, Super High School Level Massage Therapist. Saitou needs to watch his mouth sometimes." Aito grunts and covers his face up with his black scarf, a habit that he has when he has nothing to say (or just simply embarrassed).

The yellow eyed boy nods, trying to remember all of the names and faces. "I'm Maeda Takumi; a Super High School Level Runner. It is very nice to make your acquaintance, and I hope we might become friends soon." He introduces, and all of the students look at him.

"Hey," Akamine begins, emitting a "hmm," after. "Don't you think that this big door is kinda s-suspicious?"

"Oh please, don't even get me started about that door. Just look at the security camera and that gun over there! Paranoid principal, maybe?" Kerry retorts, rolling her eyes and going up so far as to knock on it.

"Hey hey hey! Don't do that! There are security cameras for a reason y'know!" A bicolored bear flashes onto the screen that hung onto the wall, right beneath the camera. Its voice was squeaky and high, with a bit of a baby tone to it.

"Wh-is that a stuffed animal…? This isn't a children's game." Sagayama knots his eyebrows and the bear cackles. Takumi's getting sick to his stomach already.

"_Why are people talking to it…? Are we crazy_?" Takumi wonders, stepping up to face the monitor screen.

"W-where are we, right now?" This doesn't feel right. This is not the Hope's Peak that Maeda expected.

"So many questions, so little answers! Upupupupu, just come to the gymnasium, and I might just tell you."

Within a flash, the bear disappears behind the desk he was sitting at, screen glowing a faint green color.

"That was certainly something," Tsuruya steps out into the hallway, gesturing for all of the students to follow her. "Let's go."

"Quite peculiar," Nagai mutters, trailing along at the end.

tbc.


	3. this is where it starts

The students wander about the hallways, occasionally jiggling a doorknob that refused to turn. "What's up with all of these locked doors around here? Is there something to hide?" Naru taps his foot against the floor and crosses his arms. Mitsuki's eyes begin to light up, and she smiles.

"Oh man, this is just like the recent novel I read!" She exclaims, frantically looking around the rooms on the way to the gymnasium. Takumi's mouth twitches and he continues to walk, until he realizes that he's the only one progressing to the room the bi-colored bear was in.

A gentle touch is felt on his shoulder, to see Kaneko with her tight lipped smile and hand fiddling with the ruffles and lace on her dress. "You shouldn't worry about what we're in right now! It's probably some sort of bad prank.", she giggles and the bear in her hands move with her steps. Takumi nods and follows the Lolita to investigate.

Yuki and Himari lurk in classroom 3A, while Nagai touches and rummage through desks in classroom 2A. Akamine spends a few minutes solving the equations on the chalkboard in classroom 1A (a clear distraction), but her brown sneakers take her to classroom 4A, leaving Kerry alone. Takumi brings himself to classroom 5A, the last classroom in the corridor. It's very stuffy in there, and he feels a strange heat come off of the room that he's quite sure no classroom has ever inherited.

The rest of the students examine the year old posters and fliers taped and stapled on the walls and billboards. Most of the messages say something about 'being careful' and 'it's coming'. What's coming? Is it here already? A small note was written on one of the papers and it was 'upupu!' Xyranis thinks all of the possible ways about what it could mean, and calls over Nicholas for help.

"Hey, Nicholas-san! What do you think of this?" The hero asks, gesturing to the billboard. Nicholas rubs his arm in reply and sputters out a reply.

"Well- maybe it's something bad? No… it's definitely something bad…" His face grows weary and Xyranis passively pats the other boy on the back, a somewhat comforting gesture.

"It probably is something terrible for sure, but what do you think they're referring to? You're a translator, right?" Nicholas shakes his head and grips his hair, voice loud and echoing throughout the halls.

"Y-yes, but I'm not good at translating dysphoria! I'm sorry!" The brunette covers his face with his hands and fell to the floor, alerting the prince to stay by his side and comfort him.

Chinatsu, finished with skimming the textbooks, looks around and takes a gander at the crude drawing of a cartoon rabbit being hanged and executed on the chalkboard. A side note was hastily written with pink chalk. The words say, 'Uwaa! That isn't nice at all!'. Nagai shakes their head and slips out of classroom 2A, unsatisfied.

Takumi finds a booklet that stands out in a file cabinet's drawer, it's contents having to do with something about the rules and regulations of Hope's Peak. He skims some of the rules.

#5: Never, ever touch the plant on the third floor! It is carnivorous and will tear your stuffing apart.

#12: Stay awake and alert at all times while the Headmaster is giving you a lecture. You may not even know who did his wiring.

#27: Yes, the machine guns located throughout the school are fully functional! Do not even think about testing them.

Quite unnecessary rules, but good to have in mind. He puts the small booklet in his breast pocket. Maybe in his free time he could read the rest of the rules later.

A public announcement is made throughout the speakers placed within the hallways, voice static and squeaky. "Hey, bastards! Do you really think you can overwait me? This is your grand opening ceremony we're talking about! I could wait for centuries, and I'd still stay young! This fluffy feeling I have in my stomach is, well, unbearable…!" A wheezy laugh was followed by that, and the voice clicked off.

"Bear puns, huh?" Takumi rolls his eyes and walks to the gymnasium, followed by a snickering Akamine and a giggling Tsukishiro. Daisuke follows the two girls (and boy), trudging along. There were banners plastered on the walls, welcoming the students and saying boring things about the opening ceremony. Aloof and distracted, Daisuke whirls his head around, to be hit by the Gymnasium door.

"Oh wow, I never knew that we had unstable gorillas in the zoo as well! Watch where you're going, moronic bastard." The annoying voice clicks off of the speakers, and the group of students hesitantly walk in, floor neatly polished with a singular stand in the middle of the room.

"You better show yourself, 'ya dumb bear!" Kerry fumes, crossing her arms. Takumi walks forward to the stand, tall and lanky figure hovering over it.

Anticipation and suspense, the voice that the students were beginning to get used to started to squeak onto the microphone.

"Testing, testing, one-two-three! People can hear me on this thing, right?"

Yuki grows pale, clutching Himari's arm quite tightly.

"Don't just stand around like a bunch of brain-dead zombies. Answer me!"

"We can very well hear you." Nagai sighs, rolling their eyes and stepping forward towards the stand.

"Good, good… time for the big reveal, huh?"

A faint drumming noise was heard when the students leaned closer. Mitsuki was practically leaning over the stand, head peeking through the area that was in the radius of the bear.

He springs up from behind the stand, grin large and glossy red eye glowing. The bear cackles and introduces himself as "Monokuma," along with calling the group of students a bunch of chimpanzees while holding a floppy fish in his circular grasp.

Yume laughs, picking up the monochrome bear and tossing him up in the air.

"Look, Kaneko-san! It's just like your stuffed bear!"

"H-hey! Violence is not allowed towards your headmaster…!" The small bear wiggles in Himari's grasp, even going to far as to bite the flesh on his wrist with razor sharp teeth. In reply, the tennis star hissed and clamped a hand over the area, not even looking at the bite mark. Kaoru swallows and begins to bite her nails anxiously, anger fuming up inside of her.

"That's what you get for hurting the headmaster. Anyway, I'm here to tell you about why you all are here-"

"Eh? W-where's my phone? I swore I had it in a pocket somewhere," Yuki mutters, patting herself and checking the secret pockets that she made in her vest.

"Now that you mention it, Yuki-chan, I can't find my cellphone either. Hey, bear! What did 'ya do with them?" Himari digs through both of his gym shorts' pockets, to only find cotton fluffs and nothing special. Takumi fishes through his pocket as well, to find nothing and a missing phone.

"Hm, must've gotten taken through security. Whatever, just pay attention to your headmaster, Monokuma!"

"Headmaster, huh." Seka quirks up a brow, crossing her arms. Her hiking boots click against the floor in an exaggerated way of sorts, or maybe that's just Takumi.

"Yes. Don't tell me you're a bunch of dumb chimpanzees at that. Now stop interrupting me and let me make my speech." Monobear rolls his beady eyes and makes a sound of annoyance.

"That's impossible… you're just a toy… don't tell me that we're gonna die all of a sudden," Sagayama points out, clenching his glove covered fists very tightly, to the point where his knuckles turn white.

He cackles, laugh echoing throughout the walls, sound like dripping honey in Takumi's ears. He could hear it over and over, like a cassette tape on loop.

"Well, whaddaya know," his words are drawled out, and he whistles cheekily as his fluffy figure walks through the jumble of students.

Takumi shakes his head in denial, slowly beginning to soak up the jumbled bunch of information. "No…"

"There are some things that shouldn't be avoided, right?"

"Tell us where we are."

"The one and only, Hope's Peak Private Academy. I will be your principal for now, so don't fret!"

"There's certainly a way to escape this hellhole, correct?" Nagai inquires, brushing their messy locks behind the ear.

"In fact, there is! You must kill someone to get out alive-" The little smirk that's plastered on his face is infuriating when he sees some of the reactions of the fellow students. He goes on.

"-however, you must not get caught. It would be a shame for all of your peers to know you're that selfish." Monokuma looks at Teiko the whole entire time, razor sharp teeth shining at him. The Massage Therapist simply blinks and places his arms to his sides, stiff posture and clammy hands.

"K-killing?! There's no way…!" Akamine exclaims, blue eyes widening and hands reaching up to rub her temples to calm herself.

Aito's lip trembles and he lets the beanie that he wears slowly cover his face.

Kerry looks down and bites the inside of her mouth, fighting the urge to call out what bullshit this is, why can't we just live normal lives.

Xyranis and Nicholas exchange worried looks at each other, but the taller boy with green eyes nods and the translator has a meek smile on his face.

Kaneko blankly stares at Monokuma and thinks about how terrible this situation is, as he skips by the students to give out the electronic ID cards.

A breath escapes from Nagai's lips as they get their ID card. "It was expected that I would've been marked as 'female,' I suppose."

Tsuruya looks through the extensional pages on the device, memorizing the map that it inherited. "This could be useful."

After a moment of looking at the electronic identifications, Takumi hesitantly spoke up. "We could call the police… or yell. Someone should notice that we're missing."

"Smart thinking, but these walls are sealed. Also, no connection. This is quite the establishment, you see." Monokuma giggles.

"Well-" Kerry huffs and folds over the sleeves of her dress. "It's worth giving it a try."

"It won't work. All of the walls are soundproof. I tested this theory with Nagai-san when we were looking around."

Kerry hunches her shoulders and lets out a defeated sigh, almost done with Hope's Peak shenanigans. Takumi gives her a reassuring pat on the back and his yellow eyes look into hers. "That doesn't mean we give up, though."

"Right."

A wheeze comes from Monokuma and he wipes a tear away, clutching his belly to contain all of his stuffing and wiring. "Hoo boy! I would love to see all of this hope take place, but there's so much despair for everyone, right? Go off, be free, bastards… also, remember, cafeteria is off limits during 'night time.'"

The students are all sitting on the rectangular table in the cafeteria, all except for Himari and Yuki. Those two were like two peas in a pod, but they show no similarities in personality and appearance. Although, it couldn't be helped.

Daisuke was the one to break the ice. "Man, we really need to get out of here soon."

"Yeah, Eagle, I agree… not like I wanna. You must have it easy, since you have Tsukishiro to escape with." Saitou's words weren't probably supposed to sting, but they did. Kagegami stands up and grabs the smaller boy's collar and presses his nose against his.

"What's your deal?!" Saitou sputters, trying to push Kagegami away. "You wanna start something?"

Daisuke backs off and lets go of his shirt collar, to be confronted by Sakura. "You need to control yourself, Daisuki-kun." The strawberry blonde ruffles his hair and eyes Aito.

"You too, Archie." The pale boy gives an understanding nod and leaves the cafeteria to take a breather. He can't stand this.


End file.
